


He's Like The Son I Might Have Known, If God Had Granted Me A Son

by creatureofhobbit



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-05
Updated: 2014-01-05
Packaged: 2018-01-07 15:09:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1121315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creatureofhobbit/pseuds/creatureofhobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As the rebels go over the plans for the 75th Hunger Games, Mags vows to do whatever it takes to protect Finnick as well as Katniss and Peeta.</p>
            </blockquote>





	He's Like The Son I Might Have Known, If God Had Granted Me A Son

“So everyone knows what they have to do?” Plutarch asked the group.

“We’ve been over it enough times that even Nuts should have got it,” Johanna rolled her eyes. Finnick jabbed her in the ribs, but she ignored him.

“Then maybe you’d like to share it with the rest of us, sweetheart,” Haymitch said as he took a swig from the habitual bottle he carried around with him before passing it to Chaff.

“We’re all agreed,” Johanna said in a bored tone. “We do what we can to make sure the Mockingjay lives. And we keep lover boy alive too, because we know that we won’t keep her in any alliance without him.”

“She may not want to form an alliance with any of us anyway,” Beetee pointed out, but Haymitch said “Leave that one to me. I’ll try and make sure she understands who the real enemy is.”

Mags leaned over and whispered to Finnick whilst everyone else’s attention was on an argument about whether Woof’s strategy of pretending to be senile was a good one, with an argument for it that if he should be captured by the Capitol they may find it easier to believe that he knew nothing versus the fact that his senility might make Katniss feel he was a bad risk as an ally. “How are you feeling?”

“I wish you weren’t going in to the arena,” Finnick admitted.

“It is better this way,” Mags replied. “It is better that it is me than Annie. No one else would have volunteered for her.”

“This situation shouldn’t have been created at all,” whispered Seeder, who had heard their conversation, Chaff nodding by her side. “Chaff and I were just saying that we were going to argue that in our interviews. Finnick’s right, you really shouldn’t be going in.”

“Neither should he, or any of you,” Mags replied.

Ten Years Ago:

From the year that Finnick first became eligible to be reaped for the Games, Mags had hoped each time that his name would not be the one pulled out. She had known his family for so long, had come to regard Finnick as the closest thing to a son that she would ever have. The year that he was selected, she had scanned the faces of all the other eligible tributes, hoping that someone would volunteer in his stead. But District 4 had not yet become a career district that year; it was only after Finnick had surprised all of Panem by becoming the youngest ever victor that District 4 started investing in training their tributes and people started volunteering, in the hope of basking in what they perceived as his reflected glory. The darling of the Capitol, that was what Finnick was in the eyes of Panem. None of them knew what was going on under the surface.

She had tried to tell herself just as she had told Finnick at the time that maybe things would be different. So maybe Finnick was younger than anyone who had ever won before, but that did not have to matter. He stood just as good a chance as anyone else. And as Mags had watched the recap of his and his fellow tributes’ interviews with Caesar Flickerman, she had heard talk that people felt that Finnick was one of the most likely tributes to get sponsors and that they were betting on him. Finnick had acted as though he believed it for the sake of the cameras, but had admitted when he was alone with Mags that he was not feeling as confident as he had let on.

Mags had spent every night of the Games praying for Finnick’s safety, and even when all the signs were that he was going to win, after he was given the trident, Mags only allowed herself to relax when the anthem was played to announce his victory. Thank goodness that was over, she had thought. At least she was never going to have to watch Finnick go through anything like that again.

Or so she had believed at the time. 

*****

As Beetee started talking about the technicalities of the plan to blow a hole in the force field that Plutarch had told them would be in the arena, with Wiress attempting to chip in, Mags found herself making a vow of her own. Yes, she would do whatever she had to do to make sure Katniss and Peeta survived. But if it was in her power, she would also do whatever she could to save Finnick. Plutarch was saying that he would find some way of communicating to the tributes the time of the rescue so that Beetee knew when the force field was to be destroyed, and that he couldn’t tell them now when it would be but his aim was for it to happen as soon as possible. Mags hoped that it would be soon enough that Finnick’s safety could be guaranteed.

She had had her time. Mags knew that if she went into the Games, she was not expected to survive even the couple of days that Plutarch hoped it would be before he was able to arrange the rescue of the remaining tributes. And she had come to terms with that. She had lived eighty years, a long lifespan even for District 4 and she knew that this was something people from some districts could only dream of. And since the stroke she had four years earlier, her quality of life was not what it used to be. Last year, it had been as much as she could do to turn out to the Capitol for the Games, and she admitted that Finnick’s role in mentoring that year’s tributes had been greater than her own. Mags did not know how many more years she could drag herself to the Capitol and mentor tributes, watching them die and feeling powerless to stop it. And this was her, a mentor from a Career district whose tributes stood a good chance of winning. How much worse must it feel for Haymitch and Chaff, who had had to watch their tributes die year after year, Chaff having had one victory in thirty years and Haymitch none until Katniss and Peeta?

Finnick, however, had his whole life ahead of him, and should the rebellion be successful, he had the chance at a life that was actually worth living. He would be free to turn his back on President Snow and the life that the president was forcing Finnick to lead, without fear that Snow would take it out on those that he loved. Mags and Finnick had talked about that, and Finnick had admitted that he had feared that Mags’s status as a victor would not protect her, that she would be one of the people that Snow went after if Finnick didn’t do what he wanted.

And he could have the chance at a life with Annie. If Annie had gone into the arena, it could well be a death sentence for her just as it was going to be for Mags. Whereas if Mags volunteered, she was giving them a chance to build a new life together in the new world the rebellion would create. A new world where their people could be free, as they had dreamed of so long ago in a time Mags could barely remember. A world where they could have children without fear that these children would be reaped for a future Games.

Mags was determined that she would never let Finnick know what she was thinking. If he knew, he would probably try and do whatever he could to make sure she got out. But she didn’t want that. Finnick had to think of himself now, as well as the rebellion. And Mags would do whatever she had to do to make sure he was safe, that he had a future.


End file.
